Moroccan state agency on Wednesday issued the first 10 permits for the use of cannabis in industry, medicine and for export.

The agency said farmers who organised into cooperatives in the northern mountain areas of Al Houceima, Taounat and Chefchaouen would be gradually allowed to grow cannabis to meet the needs of the legal market.

Cannabis was already widely cultivated in Morocco illegally and the new law, passed by the parliament in 2021, does not permit its use for recreation.

The law was intended to improve farmers’ incomes and protect them from drug traffickers who controlled the cannabis trade and export it illegally to Europe. (Reuters/NAN)